UMG v. MP3.com
UMG Recordings, Inc. v. MP3.com, Inc.(2000) is one of the landmark cases concerning the Internet. The issue at hand concerned MP3.com's unauthorized duplication of essentially every music CD ever made for the purposes of launching a program entitled "Beam-it", which was a functionality that allowed people to access their private music collections online from anywhere in the world. MP3.com defended, in part, that "consumer protection" concepts supported MP3.com's unauthorized use of the intellectual property of the major record labels and music publishers. In ruling, the court indicated that "stripped to its essence, defendant's 'consumer protection' argument amounts to nothing more than a bald claim that (the) defendant should be able to misappropriate (the) plaintiff's property simply because there is a consumer demand for it. This hardly appeals to the conscience of equity." The resulting litigation and judgments thereto pushed MP3.com into severe finanical difficulties which were averted by a merger with Vivendi Universal.
External LinksThe Merits in the MP3.com Lawsuit - May 2000 MP3 Newswire article on the Universal/MP3.com court case.
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